Polish, Ukrainian groups seek accord over WWII killings

WARSAW, Poland, June 18 (UPI) -- Ukrainian and Polish representatives say they are in talks to draft a joint resolution marking the ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia during World War II.

As the 70th anniversary of the killings approaches, non-governmental emissaries from both nations are meeting to draft a document remembering the violence as a means to foster future understanding between the two nations, TheNews.pl said.

The attacks, which were launched July 11, 1943, were aimed at ethnic Poles living in Volhynia, formerly a region of southeast Poland, by nationalist Ukrainians who hoped to create a separate state after the war.

Historians estimate between 30,000 and 60,000 Poles were killed, the report said. As fighting spread to other areas of southeast Poland, some 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed before the violence finally ended in 1947.

The largest stumbling block for the two sides is whether or not to include the word "genocide" in the joint resolution. Some political parties in Poland that have drafted their own versions of the accord have included it but the main political party dropped the word from its version.